Geek Greeting Cards [PRODUCT]
Forest Visualization [MAP]
Trees are one of Earth’s largest banks for storing the carbon that gets emitted by natural processes and human activities. Forests cover about 30 percent of the planet’s surface, and as much as 45 percent of the carbon stored on land is tied up in forests.
But did global forests hold more or less carbon in the past? And could they store more in the future? Does it matter where those trees are growing? Scientists really don’t know. But before they can find out, they’ll need a reliable inventory of what is growing today.
Josef Kellndorfer and Wayne Walker of the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) recently worked with colleagues at the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey to create such an inventory for the United States. The map above was built from the National Biomass and Carbon Dataset (NBCD), released in 2011. It depicts the concentration of biomass—a measure of the amount of organic carbon—stored in the trunks, limbs, and leaves of trees. The darkest greens reveal the areas with the densest, tallest, and most robust forest growth. Read the rest at Earth Observatory.
The A-Team, Dr. Seuss Edition [ILLUSTRATION]
Prohibition Preparedness Kit [PRODUCT]
I didn't realize prohibition was back on the agenda--it's probably a ballot initiative somewhere--but you can never be too safe...
2012 State Of The Union Address & Response [WORD CLOUDS]
